Bug#478661: debian-installer: Preseed hangs when installing using aptitude (debconf error)
reassign 478661 installation-guide
retitle 478661 Should document how to install packages during preseeding
severity 478661 wishlist
thanks
On Wednesday 30 April 2008, Ronald wrote:
> #aptitude -y -t sid install amsn wine tor easytag (AND HERE IT HANGS)
>
> The error the terminal gives is:
> /usr/share/debconf/confmodule: line 42: 3: Bad file descriptor
>
> I heard this is because we have two instances of debconf running (one
> outside the chroot and one inside the chroot), that is all nice but it
> still hangs :(
The problem is probably that one of the programs you're trying to install
wants to communicate with the user through debconf, which conflicts with
the fact that debconf is already being used by the installer.
You have two options:
- make sure there is no interaction by setting the noninteractive frontend
in your script (see debconf documentation)
- don't run aptitude in your script, but instead use apt-install in the D-I
environment; apt-install sets things up in such a way that any
communication is passed through to the debconf instance used by the
installer
The last is _very much_ the preferred method.
If the program is trying to interact by asking questions on the console
instead of using debconf, then that is a bug.
This is definitely not a bug in the installer, but I'm reassigning to the
installation-guide as we probably should document this a bit better in the
installation guide. apt-setup is already mentioned at [1].
Cheers,
FJP
[1] http://d-i.alioth.debian.org/manual/en.i386/apbs05.html#preseed-hooks
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